


Shining softly

by sirona



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Get Together, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-09
Updated: 2011-02-09
Packaged: 2017-10-15 13:26:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/161232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirona/pseuds/sirona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A light Ariadne character study re: Cobb. A Christmas drabble gift; prompt was Ariadne/Cobb.</p><p> </p><p>Disclaimer: Inception belongs to Chris Nolan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shining softly

Cobb is squinting. Cobb is squinting at a smirking Arthur, and Ariadne knows she's in deep, deep trouble. Because Cobb squinting is _funny_ \-- his eyes narrow so much that all you see is a glint of blue somewhere behind his eyelashes; his forehead scrunches, and his eyebrows wiggle like they're trying to climb and descend at the same time -- they resemble a pair of hairy caterpillars that migrate up and down his face at will.

But. Well. For some reason Cobb squinting doesn't make Ariadne need to stifle a laugh and turn her back so that Cobb can't see the amusement written all over her face. No. She has apparently regressed back to being a teenaged girl, because for some unfathomable reason, Cobb squinting makes her want to stride forwards, grab his face and kiss the living daylights out of him.

Something of her dismay must show on her face, because Eames takes one look at her and turns away quickly, shoulders shaking.

"Oh, love," he says when he gets ahold of himself again, "You _didn't_."

Ariadne looks at him, a pitiful look in her eyes, and he manages to strangle the chuckle rising in his chest again. The noise he makes as he does so draws Arthur's gaze, as practically everything he ever does is bound to do.

Eames tries to look innocent, to not point a glaring spotlight on Ariadne's personal revelation, but Arthur can read him like a book with cardboard pages and colourful illustrations. He gives Ariadne the most penetrating look she has ever received; and then the damnedest thing happens -- a huge, wide, sunny smile breaks all over Arthur's face, and he looks like he wants to hug her.

Cobb is, of course, oblivious, and all Yusuf does is give her a pitiying look that Ariadne can't bring herself to dislike, because he's right -- she's pitiful. She cannot believe she's let this happen. How the hell did she let this happen?!

~~

It doesn't go away on its own, as she'd hoped. Cobb absentmindedly hands her one of the coffees he's brought for the entire team, and their fingers brush. Ariadne flushes like a twelve-year-old -- evidently she's regressing further every day. She's resolute at drawing the line at single digits.

~~

She runs away at the end of the job. Says a quick 'bye' on her way out of the hotel, and avoids Eames' knowing eyes and Arthur's pursed lips as he's glaring bloody murder at a still-oblivious Cobb. It's not Cobb's fault he's the most observent man on Earth and STILL fails to see that she's developed a stupid, high-school crush on him.

So she runs, and pretends she has exams when he calls her for a job.

~~

She can't pretend forever. She misses it, misses the delicious thrill of closing her eyes and seeing whole cities rise from the ground when she opens them again. There's nothing else like it in the whole world.

She misses the team, too. She misses the easy affection between Arthur and Eames, half-heartedly covered by their incessant bickering; she misses Yusuf's open face and open heart, a friendship vast as the world they build every time they fall asleep.

And she misses _him_. Him with his effortless brilliance now that Mal no longer sabotages him building again; him with the crazy structures mathematicians and architects the world over would weep, were they given a single glance of them; him with his vast love for his children, unconditional and neverending; him with his kind words, and hapless jokes, and clueless torture, the way he brushes her hand when he's distracted and wants her to look at something strange and beautiful that his mind has created, just for her.

~~

Which is why she says 'yes' the next time he asks, and arms herself with patience, and thickens her skin, and guards her heart when he picks her up from the airport, all blue eyes and sharp suit, endlessly fond.

Which is why it comes as a complete and utter surprise to her when he says, "Have dinner with me tonight. Just the two of us," and means so much more, eyes guileless and open, and as far from a squint as her heart is from breaking in that single, shining moment.


End file.
